Sonic and Tails: A Tale Of Origins
by Zosonils
Summary: Anybody who knows Sonic the Hedgehog will have inevitably also heard of Miles 'Tails' Prower. The two are best friends, and their bond is legendary and unbreakable. But nobody knows exactly how the two met. What were the events that began this friendship? This story is one of many takes on the origin. Please read, review, and enjoy! Cover drawn by me, no stealing.
1. Chapter 1: First Impressions

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

xX*Xx

 **Hi! Zosonils here. Many of you will be here from my now discontinued first attempt at this story. If that's you, thanks for understanding. If it isn't, don't worry, you aren't missing out on a whole lot. Everybody loves a good ole 'how Sonic met Tails' fanfiction. It's a totally original idea that nobody else has EVER done before! (sarcasm) I hope you like this. And for reference, here's my interpretation of the timeline of the classics: Sonic 1, Tails' Adventure, Sonic CD, Sonic 2 Game Gear/Master System, Sonic Generations (as in that's the point in time that the Classic characters came from), Sonic 2 Genesis/Mega Drive, and Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I do not believe Sonic 1 for the Game Gear/Master System to be canon, but I think the Zones in it do exist and are on South Island. Now that you know that, it should be easier to follow the storyline. Sorry for blabbing about nothing for so long. Enjoy the story! I need to shut up now, so I will. *mmph* *pff* *generic weird noise you make when you're holding your mouth shut with your hands***

Chapter 1 - First Impressions

Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, there was a place named Cocoa Island. Very few people knew of its existence. It was so remote that most maps of the world didn't even show it. But on the island, a small but happy community thrived, despite their isolation from the rest of the world.

One of the few people who knew Cocoa Island was a real place was Sonic the Hedgehog. There's little to be explained about Sonic - even somebody living under a rock would know who he was. Heck, the rocks had probably heard of him, but don't ask how rocks can hear. Sonic the Hedgehog was probably the single most famous hero on the planet. He had saved his homeland, South Island, from the forces of evil, and in doing so had prevented a dictator from potentially trying to overthrow and take control of every government in the world. How could anybody do that and not be hailed as totally awesome?

Not much can be said about Sonic that you wouldn't figure out in roughly a minute. He was a bright blue hedgehog with the same fully black eyes as most intelligent animals at the time. He had super speed, and was able to break the sound barrier on foot, hence the name 'Sonic'. While he was friendly, he didn't talk much, usually communicating with hand gestures, body language and facial expressions, and only using actual speech if it was the only way to get his thoughts across properly. He liked to explore, and had travelled all over South Island and then the world on numerous occasions. Despite having a reputation as a hero, he didn't make a big deal of it. Basically, he was just a guy who loved adventure with a carefree nature and a strong sense of justice.

Recently, Sonic had been looking for places to explore. He had come across the location of Cocoa Island, and decided to check the place out. And that brings us to the start of this story, set on the beach outlining the island, just as the hedgehog arrives.

xX*Xx

Sonic ran at super speed across the water. He casually checked the map he had printed off of the internet to make sure that he was going the right way. Yes, he was still on track. In fact, taking a closer look, he could see the shape of a small island in the distance. He accelerated, his shoes barely touching the water. Five minutes later, he had arrived at Cocoa Island, coming towards a beach. He screeched to a stop and bent down to brush the damp sand off of his red sneakers.

Before the hedgehog could go anywhere, something appeared in front of him. It looked like some kind of mechanical dog, and it was barking like crazy. Sonic immediately braced himself for a battle; after all, every time he had seen an animal-like robot before, it was trying to remove his head from his shoulders. The robot-dog yapped at him and tried to headbutt him. Sonic stepped to the side, and it crashed into the sand. It jumped right back up again and continued to bark at him. A voice interrupted the battle. "T-Pup, no! Stop it! Bad dog!" Somebody, apparently the owner of the robot, ran out from the forest nearby. It was a fox, a small child five years old at the most. Sonic saw that the fox had two identical tails. "This is a visitor, T-Pup," the kid told his dog. "Don't start attacking him for no reason, okay? He hasn't done anything bad to us." He looked up at Sonic. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean for him to attack you! We'll leave you alone, just… just don't hurt me-" He stopped dead when he realised who he was talking to. His black eyes widened in amazement. "Wait! You're… you're Sonic the Hedgehog?"

Sonic nodded. He pointed at the robot dog - T-Pup, was it? - with a questioning expression on his face. _Is this your dog?_ The fox understood what was being asked. "Um… y-yes, this is T-Pup. I built him myself," he said. His ears lowered, as if he was embarrassed or expecting Sonic to hurt him. Instead of doing anything the fox was probably expecting, Sonic gave him a thumbs up and a smile. _It's cool!_ For a second, the kid seemed to be unsure if it was a sincere compliment. He must have decided it was, because his eyes shone. "You like him? Thank you!"

From somewhere else, another person appeared. He was a tall, grey wolf with a menacing appearance. "Oi, freak! What've we told ya 'bout comin' too close to the village?" The fox looked at the new stranger, and his good mood vanished. T-Pup barked again, but when the wolf came closer and glared at them, it turned into a pitiful whine. "You'll cause trouble by hangin' 'round 'ere! Beat it 'fore I beat you!" The fox grabbed T-Pup, mumbled an apology, and ran as fast as he could into the forest. Sonic looked at the wolf. _What was that for?_ "Ignore him," the wolf said. "I reckon you should avoid that little robo-thing he has, too. That kid's nothin' but a big problem. Sign a' bad luck or somethin'. Movin' on… Sonic THE Hedgehog? Honour to meet ya! The name's Alpha, an' I'm kinda this place's leader or whatever. What brings a hero like you to our lil' island 'ere?"

After one last concerned glance towards the trees, Sonic decided to focus on the conversation. He pulled out his map and showed it to Alpha, pointing at the tiny dot that he had circled and written 'Cocoa Island' above. _Just looking for new places to go._ Alpha smiled. "Well, there's plenty a' land 'ere for ya to explore, if that's what ya want. But do us a favour, come visit the village for a second, will ya? The people 'round 'ere might like to know ya came." Sonic nodded. Alpha walked back along the path he had come from, motioning for the hedgehog to follow.

They arrived at a village with many small houses and what looked like a marketplace. Alpha continued to the market and stopped at some kind of stage with a bell above it. He rang the bell, and all of the hundred or so people in the village stopped what they were doing. Some people left their houses to see what was going on. Alpha cleared his throat. "People a' Cocoa Island, as ya can see, we 'ave a very special visitor 'ere!" he announced. There was a gasp from the crowd. "Yep, that's right. This 'ere is Sonic THE Hedgehog, right on our humble lil' island!" Sonic smiled at everybody and waved. "How long are ya gonna stay 'ere?" Alpha asked. Sonic held up two fingers. _Two days._ "Well, there ya have it, folks!" the wolf said. "For two days, we've got this hero guy with us! I want y'all be on ya best behaviour an' stuff. Y'know, stay in school, eat ya veggies an' all that. Make a guy feel welcome, yeah? Thank ya for listenin'! Ya can keep doin' whatever ya were doin' before now!"

The villagers returned to their previous activities, but new conversations were sparked. Sonic looked at the small community going about their business. He couldn't help but smile, seeing how an isolated village could work so well together. Alpha turned to him. "Well, ya might as well go off an' explore or somethin'," he said. "It's what ya came 'ere for, right?" Sonic nodded and ran off, away from the village and towards the forest. He wanted to see what sort of Zones Cocoa Island might have to offer.

xX*Xx

Sonic ran through the forest. He took note of the direction the village was in, not wanting to risk getting lost. Most of Cocoa Island was covered by trees, but in the past hour or two, he had also seen a lake and a mountain, and there were some much smaller islands surrounding it he planned to visit later. The sun was starting to get lower, and there was maybe an hour left at most before it set and he would have to go back. Nothing seemed unusual. Then Sonic heard the very loud, tell-tale noise of a twig snapping. He stopped dead and turned around. He heard somebody running away, and knew instantly where they were. In one speedy movement, he had overtaken whoever was there and cornered them against a tree.

Upon catching the person, Sonic expected them to quickly explain why they were following him without his knowledge. He didn't expect them to throw their hands up in a surrendering position, pull back, and almost start crying. "I'm sorry!" they said. Sonic recognised the voice - it was the kid with two tails from earlier. He stepped back and gave him some space. The fox spluttered out a nervous excuse. "I-I just wanted to see what you were doing, but-but people don't like it when I follow them, so I hid, but th-then I stepped on something and you heard me, and… d-don't hurt me, please!"

The kid couldn't keep going. Obviously, he was terrified. Sonic put a hand on his shoulder, which he meant as reassuring, but appeared to scare him even more. The hedgehog tried to stop him from freaking out, but it wasn't working. "Hey, calm down," he said.

The sound of his voice seemed to stop the fox. "I'm sorry… wait, you can talk?"

"Well, yeah," Sonic confirmed. He almost rolled his eyes - just because he never talked didn't mean he couldn't, something that a ridiculous amount of people didn't get - but he held back for the kid's sake. "I just don't much. Now I have your attention, calm down. Don't worry, buddy, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Okay…" the fox said uncertainly. "Um… nice to meet you, I guess? My name's Miles, Miles Prower." Miles waved slowly. Sonic waved back, bringing a smile to his face. "I know who you are, of course, Sonic the Hedgehog! It's really cool to be meeting you! I'm a big fan… you're kind of my hero, really!"

They were interrupted by more footsteps. Out of the bushes, a tiny robot ran towards the two. It came to a stop in between Sonic and Miles, facing the former with a hostile, distrusting growl. Miles picked it up. "No, T-Pup! I told you, no. Don't attack him. This is Sonic! He is a friend. Friendly. Not bad." He turned back to Sonic. "I'm sorry, he's really protective of me," he apologised. "Now that I've told him you're a friend, he should be nice. It's just that everybody here doesn't like me, and he hasn't met anybody else friendly yet, so assuming that everyone is bad is sort of automatic for him."

Sonic shrugged, going back to his normal, silent way of 'speaking'. _It's fine._ He cautiously reached a hand out to T-Pup, who was sitting in Miles' arms. The dog made a surprisingly realistic sniffing action, then licked his hand, barking. "That means he likes you," Miles explained. Smiling, Sonic petted T-Pup on the head. He yapped again, sounding incredibly happy for a robot. Miles blinked, looking slightly overwhelmed. "Wow. This is the longest I've ever talked to somebody without getting into a fight. Why are you being nice to me?" he asked. "I mean, Alpha told you to stay away from me, and even if he hadn't, I'm still not normal. 'Cos seeing as I have two tails, people say I'm a freak, and-" Sonic held out a hand, signalling for Miles to stop. He pointed at Miles' two tails, then gave a thumbs up. _I think they're cool._ Judging by the way the fox's face lit up, he understood. "Thank you! Nobody's ever said that before…"

Well, at that moment, Miles had never been happier in his life. He had just met his hero, and said hero was not only treating him like an equal, but apparently liked T-Pup and thought his tails were a good thing. Nobody he'd met before had even done one of those things, let alone all three at once! He decided that he would remember this meeting forever. Sonic moved his hands outwards to indicate the general area, then adopted a questioning expression. _So, what is this place?_ Miles figured out what the question was. "This is Poloy Forest," he answered. "It's the biggest forest on Cocoa Island. There's also Caron Forest in the northwest. Then to the east of here, there's Lake Rocky, and the main river, Crystal River. And right up north, you have Polly Mountain, or Pori Pori Mountain as some people call it." He realised that he was ranting and stopped. "Oh, but I'm just rattling off random facts now. You don't really need to know all of this."

Sonic looked up. The sun was setting. He pointed at the sun, then lowered his finger to the ground. He jerked his thumb back in the general direction of the village and waved. _The sun's about to set. I need to go back to the village now. Bye!_ Miles waved back. "Oh, okay. Goodbye, Sonic," he said. T-Pup barked. Sonic smiled and walked away. Miles waited until the hedgehog was gone, then sat down on a tree stump. He threw his hands in the air excitedly. "That was so awesome!" he exclaimed, speaking to T-Pup. "Hold on, let me go over this. So… Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic THE actual Hedgehog - literally just came up and talked to me… well, kind of. Close enough. Anyway, then he says that he thinks you're cool, and then he says he like my tails? Is that even possible?!" T-Pup yapped happily. Miles gave him a pat on the head. "Aw, who's a good robot puppy? You are! Yeah, you're a good robot puppy!"

As the sun set and the stars came out, Miles had never been more excited. He eventually lay down on the tree stump and tried to get some rest. The day after, Sonic left Cocoa Island and went back home. Normal routine resumed. Their interaction was nothing but a memory. But, unbeknownst to anybody, they would meet again soon, and the next time they did, it would trigger a chain of events that changed both of their lives forever. The next time they met would mark the beginning of something huge, something unbreakable, something that would have a massive impact on the entire world…

…the beginning of the legendary friendship between Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prower.

 **And there you go! This was kind of a prologue. A prologue's prologue? Nope, my brain hurts. Next chapter will be set after Tails' Adventure. I'm trying to keep Sonic and Tails in-character. I think I'm doing okay… hopefully. I spent a while messing around with my hands and trying to figure out the appropriate actions for Sonic to do, because as we all know, he apparently didn't speak much in the Classic days. Or something. Hey, I don't know. Well, please leave a review! See you next time! :D**


	2. Chapter 2: Aftermath

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

 **Dear Oceanera12: I'm glad you like the story! As for Sonic not talking, as the story progresses, I'm going to have him speak more regularly. By the way, The Long Road Home is going great. Unrelated discussing of your work aside, enjoy this chapter!**

 **Dear John: Thank you :)**

 **Dear A Girl Who Does Stuff: ? I'm sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Could you explain what that means?**

 **WHO ELSE IS HYPED FOR SONIC MANIA AND SONIC 2017?! I WAS WATCHING THE STREAM! IT WAS SO AWESOME! ANYONE ELSE FREAKING OUT OVER THE AWESOMENESS? :D :D :D Sorry about that. I typed this right after everything was announced. I'm going psychotic with the awesomeness. In other, less awesome but still kind of good news: the second chapter of this! Yay! I've already got a lot of followers, most of them probably came from the last one but whatever, and I don't intend on disappointing them. Warning: it's cry time. This was a sort of depressing chapter. It does end in a nice way, though, I promise. Story time.**

Chapter 2 - Aftermath

 _1 year later_

It had been a year since Sonic first visited Cocoa Island. After going everywhere else in the world several times, he decided to go back to the place one more time. This time, he decided to take his plane, the Tornado.

He had been flying for half an hour, give or take, when he saw the outline of the island. Something didn't seem quite right, though. Sonic took a closer look and nearly fell out of the plane. Cocoa Island was barely recognisable. The beautiful forests had been replaced with burning wreckage. One of the smaller nearby islands was gone completely. He remembered that he was taking the Tornado, and grabbed the controls again before he could plummet into the ocean. What had happened?

Sonic landed on the beach and got out of the plane. It was even worse up close. He could see the settlement from where he was - it looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it. He almost started to go towards the village, but decided against it. If he saw and talked to anyone surviving, he'd have to leave them behind. The Tornado could only carry two people including the pilot, three if somebody was outrageous enough to stand on the wings. He couldn't deal with that kind of emotional stress. Instinct told him to get back in the plane and get the heck out of there, but something stopped him. He suddenly remembered the fox he had met last time. Miles? Yeah, Miles. Sonic wasn't certain, but he had a feeling that asking Miles would be his best bet. The kid wasn't part of the community, so he wouldn't alert anyone else, therefore cutting out the guilt of leaving a small population stranded on a destroyed island in the middle of nowhere. Unless whatever wrecked this place had… no. He wouldn't think about that possibility.

xX*Xx

It took a lot of running before Sonic finally found Miles. After all, he had no idea where he was supposed to look, or even if the kid was alive. Finally, after at least twenty minutes, he hit the jackpot. He saw the silhouette of the fox sitting on a rock, amongst the wreckage of what used to be a forest. Sonic approached silently and tapped Miles on the shoulder. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to do. He jumped about a metre straight upwards, turned around, shielded his face with his hands, and started shaking. "I'm sorry I'll go don't hurt me I didn't do anything stay back please I'll do anything just leave me alone-" He realised who it was, and stopped. "S-Sonic?" The hedgehog in question nodded. Miles breathed out a sigh of relief. "Phew… I thought you were somebody else. Why did you come back here?"

Instead of answering, Sonic looked around. His expression said everything. _What happened?_ Miles sat down. "It's… it's a long story… but I'll try and explain. So, there were these people called the Battle Bird Armada. They've been hiding out in a base disguised as an island here for ages. About three months ago, they attacked and either blew things up or burned everything to the ground. Lots of people didn't survive. I fought back with some stuff I invented, and they had to retreat…" Sonic held up his hands. He stared at Miles with an expression of disbelief. _You fought off an entire army all by yourself?_ "Uh, I guess," the fox agreed. "But nobody else thinks that. They think I'm bad luck, because I'm weird, and they say that I brought the Battle Birds here with my bad luck. And now the island is destroyed. Some people are still trying to bring the village back to normal, but it isn't working. And you remember Alpha? He… he went sort of insane. He wanted to lead us, but his little civilisation was falling apart. So he went nuts, hurt a few people, and ran off. I was there, but they didn't know that. Nobody ever saw him again. At least, not that I've heard. Everyone here… they're all really mad at me. I built a lab around here, but they burned it down, and if anybody sees me, they try to hurt me, so I have to hide. I'm stuck here, because I can't build something to get out of here, and everybody's starving because there's hardly any food, and it's…" He paused to wipe his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm getting all emotional."

Sonic couldn't describe how he felt at that moment. For a kid so young to be thrown into a literal war zone, stand up against an army, and win, only to be hated and attacked by the people he had tried to save… it was just depressing. And now he was living all on his own, trying desperately to survive in a ruined wasteland. His normal reliance on body language couldn't get his feelings across. "It's okay," he said, and was surprised to find it hard not to break down. However, something was missing that should have been there from the start. Of course. He looked at Miles. "Where's T-Pup?"

Miles didn't say anything. He lifted up the rock he had been sitting on. There was something underneath it. He picked it up and showed it to Sonic. It looked like a propeller of some sort. An explanation wasn't necessary. There was a brief pause, then Miles told the story. "The people here tried to hurt me again. He protected me, but then they went for him instead of me, and…" He lost it completely, hugged all that was left of his friend, and started crying. Sonic put a reassuring arm around the fox, who seemed confused at first, but realised it was a comforting action. Unsure what to do, eventually he returned the gesture. He almost forgot about the pain of everyday life for a moment. This was the first time in his life anyone had ever seemed to care about him.

Sonic kept his arm around Miles as the latter let out all his frustration and sadness. He really felt for the young fox, who had braved so much only to be treated even more harshly. From what he could tell, Miles had never been welcomed, comforted, or noticed for any reason aside from being unusual. And something about that made him angry. This kid was innocent, even a hero, and he deserved better. For some reason or other, Sonic wanted to help Miles more than he had ever wanted to help somebody before.

xX*Xx

After a minute, Miles calmed down again. He let go of Sonic and stepped back. "Don't worry about me. You should go. I… I'll be fine." He didn't seem entirely sure about it, though, looking down and avoiding eye contact. Sonic tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, then made a 'come on' gesture and started walking. Miles stared for a second, then followed uncertainly. "Uh, where are we going?" Sonic didn't reply, so they walked in silence.

They came to a stop at the beach, where the Tornado had landed. Sonic held out his hands and smiled. Miles looked at the plane for a moment, confused. He continued looking, and eventually figured out the meaning of being brought to it. "Wait. Are you… are you saying that I can…" Sonic nodded, and Miles' eyes lit up in amazement. "No way! I get to come with you?! Oh my gosh, this is so awesome!" He rushed forward and hugged Sonic, barely able to stop himself from tearing up again. The famous hedgehog nearly fell over, grabbing onto the side of his plane to stay upright. He couldn't help laughing at the reaction.

Miles slowly walked to the back seat of the Tornado, apparently still not sure if it was allowed. He reached up and grabbed the side of the plane, attempting to pull himself up. There was a lot of jumping and struggling as he tried in vain to climb in. Sonic walked over and boosted Miles up, and the fox finally made it into the seat. He jumped effortlessly into the front of the Tornado and started the engines again. The propeller began to spin rapidly until it was little more than a blur. Miles looked at the one he still had in his hand. He decided to bring it with him. T-Pup would've enjoyed this.

The Tornado flew across the blue of the ocean. As it did, its passengers were both having some interesting thoughts. Sonic had never heard a story quite like that of Miles Prower. It was a tale of an unlikely hero who had faced nothing but discrimination and abuse, and he wanted to help give the young fox another chance at life. Miles, on the other hand, was absolutely ecstatic. He was not only escaping from his life of hate and prejudice, but going with the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog. Surely there was nothing but sunny skies and good fortune ahead for both of them.

But you never know just what might be coming until there's no turning back.

 **And we're done! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was kind of depressing, I know, but I tried to put a positive spin (dash?) on the end. And yes, I know what you want to ask me, and no, I didn't want T-Pup to die. But it was all I could think of to explain his absence in every other game. Don't hate me. Please review and I will see you all next chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3: Expectations and Reality

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

 **Dear Oceanera12: Yeah, I'm pretty sure that everybody has no idea why Classic Sonic is just randomly appearing again. You're not the only one. On to the story part of the review. *clears throat* I joined in on that moment of silence there… *sniff* Anyways, I'm glad you're enjoying the story! Hopefully I won't disappoint you. (Also, I watched that show all. The. Freaking. Time when I was little.) I hope you like this chapter! :D**

 **Dear Nova the hedgehog: Thank you! It's great that you like this so much. I read your Sonic and Tails fic, by the way. I'm assuming you came here from my shameless plugging myself in my review. I have no shame… It was a really good one-shot. Anyways, I will try to live up to your expectations. *salutes* Enjoy the next chapter! :D**

 **Giant mega apologies for the long wait. As previously stated, my laptop unfortunately broke, which rendered it nearly impossible to write. I got it fixed quite a while ago, but I was mainly working on Legacy (my current 'main' story), and so I only recently came back to work on this. I'll try to update frequently. Thanks for still reading. :)**

 **Well, time for the third chapter, yay! I seem to have been getting a lot of praise for originality… I don't really get why people find this take on the story to be so original. Is it Sonic not talking? That seems to come up a lot… It's nothing really. According to Sonic Generations, it wasn't until he got older that he started to talk. All I'm doing is keeping it canon! I'm not telling you to stop being nice - I love y'all too - but I don't really think it's that special. It's just another version of one of the most popular fanfictions out there. You people are all just way too nice. …You are all so, so awesome. *hugs everyone through the internet***

Chapter 3 – Expectations and Reality

The plane touched down on the shores of South Island. It was fairly massive for such a remote island. There was a huge mix of scenery on the island, ranging from rolling hills to jungles to barely visible caves, with a good amount of structures like ruins, bridges and a town taking up a small area near the beach. Sonic stopped the engine and jumped out of the Tornado. Miles carefully climbed down to the ground. He looked around. Having never travelled far from his home - no, his _former_ home, he wasn't used to seeing so many new and different things at once. Sonic held his arms out. _Here we are!_

Miles smiled. "This is a cool place." Sonic gestured for him to follow. "No, it's okay," he said. "I'll go and find somewhere to set up. It shouldn't be too hard." Noticing Sonic's concerned expression, the fox quickly added, "I'll be fine. I'm used to finding shelter in the wild. Thank you for bringing me here." Before Sonic could argue, he turned and left, heading for the forest.

Sonic watched him leave. He knew he couldn't make Miles come with him, but he was still concerned about him. He told himself to knock it off. The kid would be okay. He had said so himself. With one last look towards Miles, Sonic turned around and walked to his house on the edge of the Green Hill Zone.

A few hours later, Miles was still exploring, looking for a good place to set up in. The sun had begun to set, but he told himself that he would find somewhere before it got dark. He ended up on the beach. He could see the town in the distance, but decided against going to it. For a while, he walked around aimlessly. He noticed that there was a figure approaching. Taking a closer look, Miles realised that it was another person, and instinctively braced himself. The person - upon closer inspection, a green hedgehog wearing black shoes, gloves and a leather jacket - came closer. "Hey, kid," he said. He smiled, but it was the kind of smile that never means anything good. "I haven't seen you around here before. You must be new here. What's your name?"

"Uh… M-Miles Prower," Miles stuttered. "I don't want trouble. I'll leave if you want me to…"

Random Green Hedgehog interrupted. "Well, Miles per hour or whatever your name is, you might have a problem here. Because you said you didn't want trouble, didn't you? Thing is, you've found some."

Miles tried to stop shaking. "I… I… I'm…" He couldn't speak. He immediately recognised what was going on: he was about to get either beaten up, or yelled at, or both. Probably both.

"Here on South Island, we do things differently," Random Green Hedgehog continued. "Well… I do things differently, at least. But I reckon everyone else is gonna agree with me this time." He took another step towards Miles. "You see, around here, we don't tolerate strangers showing up out of nowhere. To be specific, we don't tolerate freaks." He moved fast, a gloved hand reaching out in a split second to throw a punch.

Years of being bullied on a near-daily basis had sharpened Miles' reflexes. He instantly recognised the punch and turned. Random Green Hedgehog missed his original target of Miles' stomach, instead landing a hit on his right shoulder. Miles stepped backwards to avoid another angry swipe from his assailant. He jumped over a kick aimed at his knees, but before he landed, the green hedgehog brought his fist down over his head. Miles cried out in pain and fell to the ground. The hedgehog used the fox's momentary break in concentration to get in another few punches and kicks. Before he could completely knock out Miles, who had stopped fighting back and lay on the ground, curled up in a ball, a blue streak sped by and knocked him off his feet. Random Green Hedgehog looked up and saw another hedgehog over him - specifically, Sonic. He turned slightly pale. "Um, S-Sonic the Hedgehog? I didn't see you there! I was just, um… this isn't what it looks like! Um… this kid had shown up, and I, er…"

Sonic facepalmed. Nobody with an IQ in at least double figures would believe that this guy wasn't attacking a defenceless kid. He then picked Random Green Hedgehog up by his jacket (being surprisingly strong, given his size) and stared right into his eyes. The glare said everything. _I don't know why you did that, but I had better not see you do it again_. Random Green Hedgehog blinked, and he struggled to get down to the ground. "Um, s-sorry." Sonic shook his head and pointed at Miles, who was now standing up with an amazed expression. _Don't say sorry to me. Say it to him._

Random Green Hedgehog turned to Miles. Without making eye contact, he mumbled, "Sorry for beating you up." Sonic nodded and pointed towards the town. _Good. Now go back to where you came from._ The other hedgehog ran off as fast as possible. Sonic walked over to Miles. He bent down to the fox's eye level, a concerned expression on his face. _Are you okay?_

Miles nodded. "It's okay. I'm used to… it happens a lot." He stood up. "Thank you for what you did just then… really. I don't think anybody's ever stood up for me before." He suddenly took on a slightly embarrassed look. "Uh… about earlier… well, I couldn't find anywhere to stay, and I don't want to go to the village, because I don't want the people there being mean to me. And, well, you asked me if I wanted to come with you, and I know that I said no before, but, uh…" He paused and looked at the ground. "Um, if you don't mind, could I maybe… stay with you for a while?"

The fox immediately wished he hadn't said anything. He barely knew Sonic, and now he was asking to stay with the famous hero. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But reality seemed to ignore his expectations yet again. Sonic looked like he had been waiting for this question. He nodded happily, complete with a thumbs up. _Of course!_ Miles smiled. "Thank you!" Sonic grinned back and made a 'follow me' hand sign. He started walking. Miles followed excitedly.

After a minute or so of walking, they stopped. They had crossed a bridge and come to the edge of the forest. Concealed behind the trees was a small house, nothing too special, nothing too uninteresting. Miles was surprised. When he thought of where Sonic the Hedgehog might live, he had pictured a mansion or something similarly fancy. This house, on the other hand, was as simple as the ones he had seen in the village back h- back then. Looking at it, it didn't say 'hero' or 'famous'. It reminded him of his old lab, before it had been destroyed. Sonic opened the door and stepped inside, inviting Miles in with a friendly hand. The fox seemed reluctant. After all, he had never been allowed inside a house or building before. There was an awkward pause. Miles reminded himself firmly that Sonic wasn't going to hurt him, and slowly made himself enter.

The house was as simple on the inside as it was on the outside. There were only a few rooms. The biggest one was a living room, containing a couch, a low table, a television, a bookshelf (mostly graphic novels and action-adventure series), and a tall lamp. There were two rooms linked to it. The kitchen, a small room furnished with cupboards, a fridge, and a few basic cooking appliances, had another door that led to the bathroom. The other door was closed. Miles assumed that it was Sonic's bedroom. The hedgehog held out his arms. _Here we are!_ Miles looked around. He already liked the place, and its comfortable, simplistic feel.

"You have a nice house," he told Sonic, hoping he was getting the whole conversation thing right. Without warning, he yawned loudly. There was almost no daylight left, and he had used up a lot of energy that day. Miles' fatigue hit him hard, and he immediately felt incredibly tired. He went red, hoping that he hadn't offended his friend. "Uh, sorry, it's not you, I'm just…" Sonic shrugged. _It's fine._ He held up a hand. _Wait here for a second._ He walked into the other room and came out a moment later, holding a blanket. He threw it over the couch, attempted to make it neater, but gave up after a few tries. He pointed towards the last-minute arrangement. _You can sleep here._ Miles was too tired to worry if the offer was legitimate. He managed to get out a "Thanks" before lying down, pulling the blanket over him, and closing his eyes.

Sonic looked at the sleeping fox. A smile came over his face. The kid was just so darn cute. _Rest easy, Miles,_ he thought. _You deserve it._ He turned off the lights and walked into his room, only then realising how tired he was himself. Rubbing his eyes, he collapsed on his bed and fell asleep within minutes.

Miles couldn't remember the last time he had been this happy. Actually, he wasn't sure if he had _ever_ been this happy. His expectations for the day had been thrown out the window, and whenever he closed the window and made new ones, reality opened the window again to throw them out. He had finally escaped, after so long. His past life on Cocoa Island was gone, and this one would surely be so much better. In less than a day, everything had changed. A new home, a new life, a new… friend. Friend. A word he hadn't used since T-Pup was gone. Miles realised that he was still holding the last piece of his robot pet. He placed it on one arm of the couch, and smiled to himself. Everything was looking up, and perhaps life would finally turn out all okay.

He let that last positive thought stay with him as his consciousness slipped and he fell asleep.

 **At long last, it's done. Sorry for the wait. Hope it was worth it. Writing Sonic and Tails (or Miles. Whatever) as much younger kids is so adorable. :3 It's a lot of fun, actually. I'm enjoying writing this. Like I said, I'm mainly working on my current story Legacy, but I'll try to update this as often as possible. Go check that out if you want more of my work. SHAMELESS PLUG SHAMELESS PLUG SHAMELESS PLUG AIMLESS PUG I CAN'T ENGLISH TODAY Random Green Hedgehog… original character, do not steal. I just made him up on the spot, but he's probably going to be a recurring character. Who knows, he might actually get a flipping name! Yeah, he's a jerk. It was fun to write Sonic coming and shutting him down. MLG air horns. None of this is important. Um, hope you liked it. Reviews are appreciated. See y'all next chapter! :)**


	4. Chapter 4: A New Day, A New Start

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

 **Dear Oceanera12: Yay! Review! I'm glad you like the way I'm doing this. Out of curiosity, I've been wondering, what is it about my version of 'Classic Sonic doesn't talk' that's better? Anyways. Yep, little kids are adorable. :3 Died a little writing that part. So cute. Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **Dear xXMannaXx: HUG ALL THE CHAPTERS! :3 Feeeeeeelllllsssssss… *loses maturity briefly and just screws around muttering about adorableness and Classic Sonic* Thank you for reading all my work! I'm working hard on everything for ya, don't worry. I hope you like this chapter.**

 **Chapter time again. Long wait again… sorry. I know, I'm not trying hard enough to update. Sorry, but I'm busy with lots of things these days. I'm writing whenever I can, promise! This story is progressing nicely. Thanks to all of you for the support. This one should be good. I've actually planned out something for this chapter that isn't straight up depressing! Yes… finally, a chapter that involves niceness instead of just me being really mean to all the characters. So things are finally looking up. Yay! Hope y'all enjoy! :D**

Chapter 4 - A New Day, A New Start

The morning sunlight shone through the windows. It lit up the room and softly fell on Miles' face. He half-consciously rolled over to block it out. Something was different. He wasn't lying on the ground, but something soft and comfortable… He forced his eyes to open and his mind to wake up. And then he remembered where he was, and his mood lifted. Miles pulled off the warm blanket and stood up. He wasn't sure where to go. It wasn't his house, and he didn't want to do anything without Sonic's permission.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait for long. The blue hero walked out from his bedroom barely a minute later. He waved. _Hi, Miles!_ Miles waved back. "Good morning," he said politely. Sonic smiled. He jerked his thumb towards the front door, then made a 'come' gesture with a questioning expression. _I'm going out. Do you want to come?_ Figuring that it would be more fun than standing around doing nothing, Miles nodded. "Alright."

Sonic opened the door. He held it open until Miles was outside, then closed it behind him. He began to walk, and the fox followed. They walked for several minutes. Normally, Sonic would've ran there in seconds, but he slowed down for Miles' sake. Eventually, they were just outside the town. Sonic continued walking, but stopped when he realised he was no longer being followed. He looked back. Miles had stopped and was standing still. Except for shaking slightly, he wasn't moving. He had just frozen.

Of course. Sonic mentally beat himself up a little. The kid had only just escaped from being bullied and abused by everyone he had ever met, and now he was expected to just walk right into a town full of people as if nothing had happened. He almost facepalmed at his own stupidity, but realised that Miles would probably take it as him having done something wrong, so he held it in. He stepped back towards the fox and made a 'come on' gesture. Miles still didn't move. Sonic took another step closer and offered his hand with a comforting smile. _It's okay. I'll protect you._ Miles looked up at Sonic. For a moment, he remained still, partially trying to sum up the willpower to go, partially overwhelmed by the action. He finally made the decision. He grabbed Sonic's hand with a surprisingly tight grip. The hedgehog used his other hand to give a thumbs-up. He led his new friend into the small town.

They stepped onto one of the simple paths, and Miles immediately noticed that everyone they passed looked at them. Holding the hedgehog's hand tightly, he tried hard to convince himself that they were all focused on Sonic, although he couldn't help noticing that a lot of the stares were pointing towards him. The blue hero seemed completely indifferent to the attention. He casually walked until he came to a stop at a cart selling food. A brown bear was taking money and exchanging it for hot dogs. He passed some food to a group of teenagers, then called, "Next!" Sonic walked up, bringing a smile to the bear's face. "Heya, Sonic!" he said in a friendly tone. "What can I get you? I don't even need to ask. Let me guess, chilidogs as usual. How many?" He looked down, and only then did he notice Miles. Specifically, only then did he notice Miles' two tails. His eyes narrowed. "Who's your… friend?" he asked.

"His name is 'Miles per hour'," said a voice from behind them. Sonic and Miles turned around to see the green hedgehog from the other day. He was with two other animals: a yellow rabbit in shoes, gloves, a hat and sneakers, all of it red, and a red fox with blonde hair wearing white gloves and a black skirt, short T-shirt and sandals. "Or something like that," the hedgehog continued. "But hey, who cares?" His friends laughed at this.

"Uh, it's Miles _Prower_ ," Miles nervously corrected them. He had intended to help, but the added laughter told him that it hadn't worked the way he'd wanted. Sonic gave them a glare, and they stopped, but it was fairly obvious that they'd start again the moment his back was turned. He made a mental note not to let Miles out of his sight while they were in town.

The bear rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh." He noticed Sonic's annoyed glance. "What? Well, anyways, how many do you want?" The hedgehog held up four fingers, then gave the vendor the appropriate money. "Okay, coming right up." He grabbed four chilidogs and handed them over. As he did, he leaned towards Sonic and whispered loudly, "You might not want to hang around that kid… Miles. I don't think he'd be good for your image." He stood upright again and shouted, "Next!"

Sonic took the food and sat down at a table. Miles followed him uneasily. He kept glancing over towards the three other animals, eating their food and talking amongst themselves. As if sensing his friend's discomfort, Sonic quickly opened the bag of chilidogs. He pushed two over to Miles. The fox looked down at them, unsure what to do. "Aren't these yours?" Sonic shook his head. He pointed at the dogs on Miles' side of the table, then pointed at him. _Those are yours._ Miles was surprised, to say the least. "But… you paid for them. Why are you giving me some?" Sonic realised that the kid had probably never been given free food - or free anything, for that matter - in his life. He sighed, pointed at himself and then Miles, and gave a thumbs-up. He then jerked his thumb towards the chilidogs again. _Because we're friends. Come on, eat something._ After taking one last look at the hedgehog to make sure it was okay, Miles finally picked up a dog and started eating.

He had never tasted anything like it. The combination of meat and bread and spices hit him hard, but in a good way. Then the chilli powder kicked in, and he almost dropped it. He started coughing. Sonic thumped him on the back. Miles coughed once more, then went right back to eating. Sonic laughed silently and started on his own food, biting off half the chilidog in one go. They ate in silence for a while. Sonic finished his quickly, while Miles was still working on his first. He pointed at the other dog with a questioning expression. _You gonna finish that?_ The fox swallowed what was in his mouth and thought. He broke the last chilidog in two, pushing the bigger half towards Sonic, who smiled and started eating again.

A few minutes later, they were done. Miles looked Sonic in the eye. "That," he said seriously, "was the best thing I have ever eaten in my life." The hedgehog couldn't help but smile at the reaction. He stood up and motioned for Miles to follow him. _Come on, let's go._

Another few minutes of walking passed, then they were back at Sonic's house. The hedgehog opened the door, and they both went inside. Miles looked up at his friend. "Well…" he began, then trailed off, not knowing where to start. Sonic smiled, sat on the sofa, and tapped the space next to him. _Sit down._ Miles complied. He thought about how to go about it. "Okay…" he started again. "Well, I've been thinking, and I don't really like the name 'Miles Prower' all that much. It reminds me too much of all the bad things that happened while I was called that, and all the teasing I got because of it. So, I'd like to change my name, at least until the memories don't hurt anymore. I was wondering… what should I call myself?"

Sonic considered the question. He liked the idea. It might help Miles to get over his past. "I'm thinking of something that sounds cool, but not too complex. Like your name," Miles added, hoping that the hedgehog would think of something. After a while, Sonic snapped his fingers. He pointed at Miles' two tails. _How about 'Tails'?_ The fox looked back curiously. "…Tails?" he asked. Sonic nodded. Miles thought about it for a moment. Slowly, he smiled. "Tails… that sounds so cool! It's fitting, but… not like a mean name. Like how you're called Sonic, and you're super fast." Sonic gave a thumbs up. Miles looked back at his tails. For the first time, they didn't feel like a curse, weighing him down. They were more like… a part of him. A unique attribute that nobody else in the world had. He laughed slightly out of happiness. "Tails. I like that." Sonic held up a hand, which Mil- er, Tails high-fived. "Yeah!"

 **And there's the end of this chapter. Now I can finally start calling Tails 'Tails'! Finally, it isn't all depressing! All the happy stuff is going on now, yay! I don't have a definite plan for this, but I know all the key events I want to put in, so hopefully I can find a way to link them all together nicely. Updates won't be that frequent… sorry. This story isn't my highest priority, so it isn't the first thing I'm going to work on every time I can, but I won't forget about it. Promise. Well, I don't want to rant in the author notes too much, so I'm going to leave it off here. Thank you all for reading and I will see all you people in the next update!**


	5. Chapter 5: Deeper Understanding

**Sonic wants to do the disclaimer, just for some fun. So I let him do it. Hope it makes sense. Don't sue me for a bad copyright disclaimer. I have no money.**

Sonic glared at me briefly for implying that people can't understand him. He looked back to you. He pointed at himself, then Tails. Then he aimed his finger at me and shook his head. He then picked up a Genesis that was lying around solely for the purpose of this disclaimer, and pointed to the SEGA logo on it. Putting down the most epic of all 90's consoles, he jerked his thumb towards all the fan characters I made up for the story, who were conveniently standing nearby. Sonic pointed towards me again, then shrugged and aimed his finger back at the logo on the Genesis. He gave a thumbs-up for SEGA.

 **Are you done yet? Okay, nice. We should fix the fourth wall now. Go back into the story. There are only a few paragraphs before it starts. That was fun to write. Should I do that more often? Anyways, reviews and notes!**

 **Dear Oceanera12: Behold the power of italics. Funny, it only happened because I was re-reading the first chapter, and I thought, 'There is no way in 2006 that anybody will understand this.' You should eat a chilli dog some time. They're really good. And I can totally imagine Eggman opening a box in his lair like 'haha, my 1,586,930,472** **nd** **evil plan worked!' and Sonic's in there, eating chilli dogs and having no idea what's going on. XD Now I want to make that joke. Well, I'll be sure to work hard. :D**

 **Yay, super fast update! I had quite a lot of time to write today and yesterday, and I didn't have a lot of ideas for Legacy (my main work), so… I ended up working on this instead. It didn't take too long, because I was writing some super intense stuff. I don't know about any of you other fanfiction authors out there, but when I'm writing something really exciting, I almost literally can't stop until I've finished it! So I got this out nice and quickly for you all. Hope you enjoy!**

 **This chapter name is terrible ;-;**

 **Okay. Now this chapter will be very, very interesting. I don't want to spoil anything, because spoilers are evil, but there's a bit of exciting action. Sonic and Tails both learn something new about each other this chapter, and in both cases, it's one of their main defining traits. So this'll really advance the plot a lot. Instead of talking about it, I should let you read this. Ready… GO! *light speed dashes into chapter***

Chapter 5 - Deeper Understanding

Over the next few days, Sonic and Tails settled into a routine together. Sonic showed Tails around his house, so that the fox would be more comfortable there. They did things together. Watching TV, reading comics, going outside and having fun in the surrounding Green Hill Zone. Sometimes they would go out, and slowly Tails became less nervous around going into town. If he was with Sonic, nobody would try to hurt him. It was about four days before something particularly interesting happened.

Sonic had been looking at a piece of paper for quite some time that morning. Tails couldn't resist his curiosity. "What's that?" he asked. The hedgehog showed him what he had been studying. It was a map titled 'South Island'. The map showed a detailed image of the island, with all the Zones separately outlined and labelled. Sonic traced a path across the island with his finger, starting and ending at his house. _I'm going to explore South Island on this path._ He pointed at Tails and made a 'come' gesture with a questioning expression. _Do you want to come with me?_ The fox smiled excitedly. "That would be so cool!"

They set out through the island. For hours, they explored. Sonic showed Tails all sorts of interesting areas. Zones like Green Hill, Jungle, Star Light, and Marble. Some places were a little dangerous, but they stayed well away from anything that could hurt them, and made it through safely. Sonic remembered his adventures in these places. He could still remember what it had been like, running through the Green Hill Zone with its loops and platforms, dodging fire and outrunning lava in the Marble Zone, avoiding explosives and spikes in the Star Light Zone while using seesaws to get over obstacles. Destroying Badniks and freeing the animals trapped within. Battling Doctor Robotnik's latest evil contraptions. It may not have been fun, exactly, with everything out to get him, but it wasn't something he would avoid doing again, should another evildoer come to cause trouble. It had been… perhaps the best word for it was exciting.

They came to an area with grass and dirt like that of the Green Hill Zone. Sonic pulled out his map and pointed to one of the areas, labelled _Bridge Zone._ Tails looked around at the Bridge Zone. It was a nice place, with its pretty, green grass and emerald-coloured rocks. The mountains to the north of South Island were just visible in the distance, fading into the clear, blue sky. A river was flowing underneath a long bridge, which was old and rickety. The wood was broken in some places, and the ropes on the sides were frayed, but it still looked reasonably stable.

For some reason, Sonic seemed a little nervous around the river. He began to cross the bridge, holding onto the ropes firmly. Tails followed him. The bridge creaked under the weight of both of them.

And then it began to collapse.

Everything happened in a split second. Being right at the end of the bridge, Tails had the time to jump back onto the secure land. Sonic wasn't so lucky. He stood there, frozen, as the wood around his feet fell away. Desperately, he tried to jump to safety, but his speed couldn't save him. Tails caught a glimpse of his friend's terrified expression before he fell. Sonic landed in the river below with a large splash.

Tails looked down over the edge of the cliff. "Sonic!" he shouted, but there was no answer. He couldn't see Sonic. He tried to calm himself. Surely Sonic the Hedgehog of all people would be able to swim. But the hedgehog didn't resurface for a good ten seconds. His head suddenly appeared above the water for a moment, his arms swinging wildly as he tried to stay afloat. He was actually screaming out loud, and his desperate cry for help reached his friend before he slipped under again. That was when it hit Tails - Sonic was drowning.

The fox was barely thinking. He jumped off after Sonic, then remembered that jumping off a cliff into rapid water without a plan was a bad idea. Instinctively, his tails began to spin in a circle, and he started flying. He snapped his fingers. Of course! Tails could do many things, but probably the most amazing of them all was is flight. By spinning around his tails like the blades of a propeller, he could actively fly. It took a lot of energy, but he could fly directly upwards just as well as any bird. He still hadn't flown even once around Sonic. He wanted to keep it a secret, in case his friend found it strange or unsettling. But now wasn't the time to worry about that. This was a matter of life and death.

Beneath the water, Sonic was practically having a heart attack. He hadn't told Tails about it, but he couldn't swim. At all. Whenever he entered water, he sunk like a blue rock. Okay, so it wasn't just that he didn't know how to swim. He was terrified of water, and right now he was convinced that he was going to die. The liquid all around him compressed his chest, making it impossible for him to breathe. His eyes closed as he stopped struggling. He was paralysed with the numbing cold and pure terror. His lungs screamed out for him to breathe, but he couldn't. He sunk closer and closer to the bottom of the watery abyss, certain that nothing could save him.

Suddenly, Sonic was vaguely aware of something around his wrist. A hand. Holding his breath, Tails grabbed his friend firmly and swam to the top. They were deep underwater, and it was hard for him to resist the urge to inhale a breath of water. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be for Sonic. He pushed harder until, finally, a light penetrated the darkness and they came to the surface. Sonic's eyes were still closed, and his chest was barely moving. Ignoring his fear of a worst-case scenario, Tails held on even tighter and started spinning his tails. "Come on, don't fail me now," he muttered under his breath. He pushed Sonic and himself out of the water, and kept flying. The effort required for him to not only keep moving upwards, but also pull somebody else with him, all while waterlogged and weighed down, was exhausting. Tails was barely able to continue pushing himself forwards, but he didn't stop for a second. "Keep going," he told himself. "If you don't, Sonic won't survive. That can't happen."

After the longest ten seconds of his life, Tails finally reached the edge of the Bridge Zone above them. He grabbed onto the cliff face where the bridge had been moments before and held on for dear life. With the last of his already depleted energy, he pulled himself up to dry land, and Sonic with him. Tails quickly shook his whole body to dry himself. Once he was done, he looked at his friend, lying still on the ground next to him. The hedgehog didn't move, and he panicked. "Sonic!" he shouted, shaking his friend. "Wake up!" He pounded frantically on Sonic's chest, hoping that his fists would act as a sort of defibrillator. Still the hedgehog didn't react. Tails was shaking in fear. Had he been too late? "Wake up, Sonic!" he yelled, completely terrified. "Don't be dead, please, don't be dead! Wake up!"

There was more silence. Then Tails noticed that Sonic was shaking. The hedgehog opened his eyes, then dragged himself to the edge of the cliff. He leaned over the cliff and threw up, salty water falling back into the river it had come from. Once the water was out of his lungs and stomach, he curled up tightly in a ball of panic. He was somewhat self-conscious with Tails watching him, but he couldn't stop himself from shivering. Terrified tears formed in his eyes. Tails took a step closer. "Are you okay?" he asked with genuine concern. Sonic simply turned away and continued crying and shaking. He didn't want Tails to see him like this.

Taking in deep, shaky breaths, he calmed himself down a little. That was when he realised that the fox was sitting right next to him with a comforting hand on his back. "Don't worry, you're safe," he said kindly. Sonic didn't know why he did it or where it came from. Maybe he was thankful for the help. Perhaps he was still scared, and just wanted some comfort. But whatever the reason, he suddenly wrapped his arms around Tails, leaning his head on the fox's shoulder and still sniffling quietly. Tails seemed surprised at first, but hugged him back. "It's alright. Everything'll be okay."

They sat there for a while in silence. So many times, Sonic had comforted Tails. Now it was his turn to support his friend. After a while, they let go, and he took the opportunity to speak again. "Can't you swim?" he asked. Sonic sighed and shook his head. "Well, that's okay. Lots of people can't swim. And there are way worse things that someone can be unable to do, right?" Tails continued to reassure him. Something clicked in his mind, and he seemed to realise something. "Are you… are you scared of water?" he asked quietly. For a while, Sonic didn't move. Then, slowly, he nodded. He knew that Tails would have to find out at some point, but he was still a little embarrassed about admitting it. However, his friend was very understanding. "It's okay. Everybody's afraid of something. Don't be upset about it."

Sonic finally managed to force a smile. He looked at Tails with an expression that clearly asked, _What happened?_ "Well… the bridge broke, and you fell in. Then I realised that you couldn't swim, so I followed you down and brought you back up here," Tails explained. The hedgehog blinked at him. With confused eyes, he pointed down to the river, then back to the ground around them. _How did you get back up here?_ The fox looked down shyly. "Well… I didn't want to tell you about this, in case you thought it was weird, but… well, I can kind of fly… with my tails. Like this." He demonstrated by whirling his tails around in a circle, until they were going fast enough to propel him up in the air. He rose a metre or so in the air, then quickly stopped and landed back on the ground. Sonic watched, amazed at Tails' ability. He clapped, then gave a thumbs up. _That was awesome!_ Tails smiled modestly. "You really think so?" Sonic nodded, standing up. He shook the water out of his spines. Then he looked Tails in the eye.

"Thank you."

"Y-you're welcome," Tails replied, surprised that Sonic had chosen to speak out loud. "Do you want to go back home now?" he asked. The hedgehog nodded and walked away from the cliff, back to the safety of inland.

The friends walked home together, reaching Sonic's house just as the sunset had begun to turn the sky a brilliant orange. Neither of them said anything about it, but there was a silent understanding between them. The knowledge that the bonds of friendship could overcome fear. That sometimes a secret doesn't have to be that way. That the events of that day had brought them closer. And the acknowledgement of what could have been lost that day, and a mutual sense of gratitude that they were both safe.

 **And there we have it! This was so adorable. FFFFEEEELLLLLSSSS ;-; I enjoyed writing this. It really advanced the plot. I finally got to show the other side of Sonic's personality. The side that's not fearless and invincible, and when it comes out, can be easily broken. The side that only the Archie Comics got right, but that Sonic Lost World tried to. The side that I shouldn't be comparing to a Modern game, because this is set in the Classic time period. The side that I need to stop needlessly blathering about. Also, I think that a few reviews didn't come through. My account tells me that I have 12, but only 8 are showing up. So if you left a review and I didn't reply to it, sorry! Please leave another one and I'll hopefully get it. Anyways, I'll keep working on this, I hope you liked this chapter, and bye!**


	6. Chapter 6: It Never Stops

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

 **Yay, the missing reviews came through! Sorry, guys. I'll reply to you all now.**

 **Dear Maxi-T: Lots of times, XD. I'm not certain, but I think it was OVER NINE THOU- stop it, Zosonils.**

 **Dear juancastri11: Were the identical reviews a glitch or on purpose? Either way, glad you like it!**

 **Dear xXMannaXx: Happy endings for the win, yay! *that sound effect with little kids cheering* Oh yeah, totally adorable. :3 Drowning… I pretty much just wrote what it felt like to hold your breath for more than a minute, then put water in XD Well, thanks for reading. As usual.**

 **More chapters, yay! This is another one where I'm not a nice author until the end… sorry ;-; This is also the longest one, by far. IT'S LIKE TWICE AS LONG AS ANY OF THE OTHERS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD AAH. But I hope y'all like it.**

 **I want to say that this chapter is more intense than the rest. I'm keeping it to a K+, so it won't be too bad, but there will be violence, and the major scene of the chapter gets into some pretty serious stuff. There won't be swearing or otherwise inappropriate language, but it's darker than the previous ones. So, that's just a little warning. Be prepared.**

 **Okay, now that you're prepared, let's go. Onwards to plot advancement!**

Chapter 6 - It Never Stops

By the next day, Sonic seemed to have mostly recovered from his near death experience. That afternoon, he and Tails visited the town to buy some lunch as usual. Sonic was distracted by ordering the food, which took longer than it normally did. When he finally turned around holding three chilidogs, Tails was no longer standing behind him. He almost dropped the food in shock, then quickly put it on a table and ran off, searching for his friend.

What had happened to Tails? He had been waiting patiently for Sonic to order, as he always did, when he suddenly felt himself being pulled off his feet by someone. Before he could scream, a hand in a black glove clamped his mouth shut tightly. He struggled, but whoever had grabbed him just kept running.

They took a few turns and eventually came to an old building. It had clearly seen better days. Some of the windows were smashed, there were cracks and burn marks on the walls, and the whole place was ringed with black and yellow tape. It reminded Tails of some of the buildings on Cocoa Island, after the Armada had almost destroyed the place. His kidnapper looked around to ensure nobody was watching, ducked under the tape, opened the half of the door that remained, then dropped him unceremoniously on the ground inside.

Slowly, Tails stood up and looked up at the person who had brought him there. He gasped. It was the green hedgehog who had showed up the day he came to South Island and given him a hard time. The other animals that had been with him the day after that, the fox and the rabbit, were in the room too. "Well, miles per hour. Don't correct me on your name, I don't care. Here we are. After spending almost a week on our island, you've finally come to meet us, all alone. This is it. No Sonic the Hedgehog to bail you out. Just you all on your own. See, we don't really approve of you coming to our island uninvited. But we can get into that later. First, introductions. My name is Synth, Synth the Hedgehog. Honey, dude, tell this kid who you are. It's polite."

The red fox was the first to step forwards. She tucked a strand of her blonde fringe behind her ear. "Hi there. I'm Scarlet," she said with mock politeness. "I'm Synth's girlfriend, and your worst nightmare. Pleased to meet you." Scarlet bared her teeth in a terrifying grin.

"Hey, kid, the name's Flip," the yellow rabbit said. He readjusted his red hat and brushed a speck of dirt off his also-red gloves, as if he was bored. "The name's a funny story. See, my parents were still going out, and-"

"Shut up, Flip, nobody cares about the freaking name story, you've told it a billion times," Synth interrupted impatiently. He turned back to Tails. "And speaking of freaks, back to you. Now that you know who we are, we can go back to the reason I brought you here. So, let's go over the story. A week or so ago, you come along and appear on the island out of nowhere. I thought, well hey, this kid can't be natural. So I go up to you and start to fight you. I mean, you're a fox with two tails. Something like that's gotta be either some failed experiment of Robotnik or a freak of nature. Either way, I'm not comfortable with you showing up. But then, as I'm dealing with you, Sonic the Hedgehog comes and sticks up for you." His voice had adopted a tone of disgust. "What did anything like you do to get him on your side? You must have made up some kind of story to make him think you were normal in every way but appearance. What did you do to him?"

Tails shrunk back from the bullies. "I… I didn't do anything to Sonic!" he told them. "He just helped me to leave my home island and come to this one! All he's doing is helping me to settle in, I promise! I don't know why he wanted to help me, but-"

"You're lying," Synth told him. "Lying isn't nice. Scarlet, why don't you show the kid what happens to people who lie?"

Scarlet's evil-looking grin came back. "I'd be glad to," she agreed menacingly. Seemingly without even giving thought to the action, she walked forwards, curled one of her hands into a fist, and punched Tails in the stomach. He cried out in pain and doubled over, holding the area.

Synth continued to talk without missing a beat. "After that first day, I hoped that Sonic had changed his mind about you. But instead, me and my friends go to get something to eat, and we see you hanging with him. Somebody like you hanging out with Sonic the freakin' Hedgehog. That just isn't right. But he's definitely with you now, so I decide not to be an idiot and attack you. We planned for this, you know. We specifically figured out where we were gonna take you, when we'd do it, all of that. Hope you're happy."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Tails yelled angrily. He was scared stiff, still holding his stomach in pain, and knew that he was about to find out how powerful these three were together, but instead of showing his fear or pain, his mind decided on anger. "Why do you hate me so much? I never did anything to you! I only ever saw you for a few minutes! What's your problem?"

Even though his attackers were surprised, they didn't show it for a second. Synth glared at the fox. "Hate you? I never said we hated you. We're just doing what any citizen of South Island would do. We're making sure that nobody weird is posing a threat to the community. Flip, give him a little reminder not to assume such things of us again."

"On it," Flip said casually. He kicked Tails' legs out from beneath him, causing him to fall over. "Don't do that."

"Now, so far you haven't done any serious damage, so I'll give you a choice," Synth continued, in a way that suggested he considered himself as being merciful. "Do you prefer to be punched or kicked? You've had a trial of both of them. Which is your favourite?" Tails didn't answer, still reeling from the pain. Synth didn't bother to wait for him. "You like both of them? Well, we'll just have to give you both!" he decided. Snapping his fingers, he commanded, "Scarlet. Flip. Start beating him up. I'll make sure nobody is watching."

Tails just had the time to curl up, close his eyes and brace himself before the first wave of pain smashed into him.

Sonic had run all the way around town three times, and still there was no sign of Tails. He began to stress out. Where was his friend? Had something bad happened to him? He stopped for a moment to calm himself down. Tails would be fine, he had just wandered off or something, it was all going to be okay. Telling himself this over and over, he resumed his search.

Despite continuing to look everywhere he could think of, Sonic still had no luck in finding Tails. It had been five minutes now, and he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He decided to look around the nearest Zone, in case the fox had gone off exploring. Another ten minutes passed as he searched the Green Hill Zone, again without any luck. His panic had returned, and he couldn't keep it in any longer. For a moment, he rested his head against a tree and simply stood there, hoping that Tails was alright, wherever he was.

Unfortunately, Tails was far from okay. For fifteen minutes, the three teenagers had been beating him up mercilessly. He dodged anything he could and held back his tears. No matter how mean the bullies were, he wouldn't let them see him cry, because then they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had broken him. Synth punched the kid one more time, then held up his hands. "Okay. Stop for a second, guys," he instructed. Scarlet and Flip obeyed. Tails took a second to stand up carefully, letting the pain slowly ease.

The hedgehog smiled. "Now, we're going to take a little break for a while, so that we can all get our energy back," he explained. "Cripes, you move around a lot. This is getting kinda boring, so I'll change things up a bit. I reckon this'll be pretty interesting. Here's an offer. If you surrender now, we'll just tie you up here so you can wait for somebody who cares to rescue you. However, if you surrender, then you're agreeing to one condition. If me, Scarlet or Flip see you with Sonic the Hedgehog again, you'll get a repeat of the last fifteen minutes, but we won't hold back as much. So, do you want to surrender?"

For a few moments, Tails pretended to consider the option. Then he shook his head firmly. Synth rolled his eyes. "Well, the heck with that, then. In that case, quick break. Then it's back to business until you're knocked out, in which case there's no point anymore," he said. For a while, there was silence, then he spoke again. "Okay, break's over, get him."

Just in time, Tails put an arm up to defend himself from Flip. The rabbit struck again, this time landing his fist on his victim's body. "Where are you even from?" he asked, as he kept punching. "Some kinda island, I think you said. Why'd you leave? You get kicked out or something? Wouldn't be surprised. I guess nobody wants a freak on their island. We're the ones stuck with you until you get out, I suppose." He grabbed Tails' arm and twisted it behind his back, making him cry out. "And this is what'll happen if you don't get out," Flip continued, as if he wasn't paying any attention to the fact that he was intentionally hurting somebody. "Give up yet? Geez, you're resilient. There's only so much fun you can have beating someone up. Ah, what the heck, I'm bored now. Scarlet, you can have a turn for a while." He roughly picked Tails up and shoved him in Scarlet's direction.

Scarlet grabbed Tails by his tails and pulled him up, so that his feet couldn't quite reach the floor. She looked him up and down with a disgusted look on her face, and flicked her single red tail. "Eew. You're a disgrace to our species," she said. She squeezed Tails' tails harder, until the fox was clearly in pain. "Remember when I told you I was your worst nightmare? You didn't believe me, did you? I'm sure you'll have changed your mind by now." As she spoke, she lifted the kid higher, until the pain was nearly unbearable. Tails gritted his teeth and used every bit of his willpower not to cry. Scarlet could clearly tell that he was holding back tears, and let him know. "Aw, are you sad?" she asked mockingly. "Did I make you feel upset? Is it hurting a lot? I'm sure it hurts. You can have a cry about it. We won't laugh, will we?" She looked to her fellow bullies and smirked. Tails just shut his eyes firmly, telling himself not to give in. Scarlet sighed. "Okay, that isn't working. I'm sick of you. I'm going to go and make sure nobody's watching. Synth, sweetie, you can have a turn now."

"Thanks, babe," Synth smiled at his girlfriend as he took Tails off her. "Flip, grab him so he doesn't get away." Flip obediently put his strong arms on the fox's shoulders. "Thanks, man. Now, miles per hour, if you correct me on your name I'll take you apart, here we are. You didn't surrender. That was a bad choice. Guess I'm gonna have to punish you for your bad choices. Bad choice number one, coming to South Island in the first place." He delivered a swift kick to Tails' stomach, provoking a scream. "Bad choice two, hanging around Sonic the Hedgehog like you're too good for anyone else." Synth punched his victim in the eye, which Tails closed just quick enough to lessen the blow. "Bad choice number three. Making me look like an idiot with your new buddy's help. And you're lucky nobody was watching…" He paused to aim another kick, this one at the fox's leg. "…or I would've hit way harder. Number four…"

Tails didn't know what provoked him to do it. Maybe he was just completely fed up with these guys pushing him around. Perhaps he knew somewhere that it's how Sonic would've handled the situation. Whatever his motivation was, he suddenly found himself screaming in fury and breaking free of Flip, who fell backwards. Not stopping to think about it, his fist shot out and got Synth square in the face. The hedgehog nearly tripped over, and once he had stopped holding his nose, he spluttered out, "What the… get him, get him!" Furiously, he charged at his victim, but Tails dodged it easily and pushed his tormentor into the wall. Synth fell to the ground.

"The heck?" Flip asked himself, picking himself up, then went to obeying Synth's orders yet again. Tails was on such an adrenaline rush, he barely had to think about his actions. As the rabbit ran at him, he charged back, shoving his opponent to the floor. Swearing loudly, Flip tried to stand up, but was pushed down again. His hat fell off as he went down.

The last of the three bullies was Scarlet. She turned around from looking out the shattered window and ducked just in time to avoid a hit. "I'm not going down as easily as the boys," she warned, then threw a punch. Tails stepped to the side and kicked the other fox in the leg, sending her down. Scarlet gasped, obviously surprised at being beaten. "Hey! Get back here, you little-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Tails threw open the broken door and ran, as fast as he could, as far away from that place as possible.

Sonic walked back into the village, defeated. He hadn't seen the slightest trace of Tails for twenty minutes, despite looking everywhere. He didn't know what had happened to his friend, but whatever it was, it didn't look too great. For once, he had no idea what to do about it. Something caught his eye in the distance. He looked closely, and suddenly his fear vanished. It was Tails, running at high speed. Sonic raced towards the fox, planning to cut him off before he could get lost again. He came to a halt right in front of Tails, who stopped immediately. He sighed in relief, then pointed at Tails and threw his hands up overdramatically. _Thank goodness, you're okay… Where were you?!_

"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed. "There were these three people, Synth, Scarlet and Flip, and they kidnapped me and took me to a broken building, and then they started being really mean to me, and they hurt me, and they said they would give me a chance to surrender, but I didn't, so they hit me more, but then I hit them back and ran, and…" He ran out of words and replaced his speech with heavy, scared breathing. "I thought that people here were nicer," he said sadly. Sonic put his arms around Tails, who was clearly trying not to cry. Then the names sunk in - Synth, Scarlet and Flip. He remembered those three. His daily tormentors, back before he had become a hero. They had stopped when he had fought Robotnik and won, but he had never forgotten the things they had said and done to him. Fragments of memories came back to him, and he held Tails tighter, knowing exactly what he had been through.

 _A six-year-old Sonic walked through the village. He held some coins in his hand, and was on his way to buy something to eat. Every few seconds, he would stop and look around, making sure that nobody was waiting to jump out at him. He continued on, but was suddenly knocked over by another hedgehog, this one green, a few years older than he was. Synth took the opportunity to grab Sonic's money. "Nice try, weirdo," he teased, holding the coins just out of reach. "It's mine now. Go home, loser." Sonic jumped, trying to reach his money, but had no luck. Synth laughed and pushed him to the ground again before leaving._

 _Scarlet held Sonic, now seven or eight years old, firmly. The little hedgehog's feet were moving as fast as he could make them go, but they didn't quite reach the ground. He refused to give up and kept trying to escape, but couldn't run anywhere. Scarlet held tighter. "Quit squirming!" she complained._

 _Meanwhile, Synth looked at Sonic's feet, barely more than a blur of insane speed. "How the heck do you go that fast?" he asked. "That can't be natural. Weirdo." He held out a fist. "Drop him, Scarlet," he instructed. Scarlet put down Sonic, who was still running. He slammed into Synth's fist at top speed, almost breaking his face in the process. He stepped back, holding his already-swelling eye and willing the tears not to escape. Synth and Scarlet laughed and walked away, leaving him there, shocked and injured._

 _Flip held the Frisbee just out of Sonic's reach tauntingly. "You want this back, don't you?" he asked. "I bet you wanna keep playing with your friend." Sonic threw his arm into the air, and Flip pulled his hand back. "Hey, that's not how to do it. You need to ask nicely."_

 _"_ _Yeah, you can't just snatch it and expect to get it," Synth agreed, as Sonic jumped desperately but unsuccessfully to reach the item in Flip's hand. "All you have to do to get your Frisbee back is to ask for it. You just need to say one sentence. Repeat after me. 'May I please have my Frisbee back?'" Of course, Synth knew perfectly well that Sonic was barely able to force out a few words. He pretended to wait patiently. "Come on. Just say it, little guy."_

 _Sonic stopped jumping. He looked at the ground, took a deep breath, and managed to mumble something that sounded like "Myiplshvmifrsbc." Synth wasn't impressed. "I can barely hear you, let alone understand that gibberish," he said. Sonic tried again, but didn't get much closer to proper English. This time it sounded more like "Maypls hvm frsback." "Nope, still makes no sense," Synth told him._

 _A red and black armadillo, Mighty, finally managed to stand up from where Scarlet had thrown him to the ground. "He says, 'may I please have my Frisbee back!'" he yelled angrily, trying to take the object in question from Flip. At ten, he was only a year older than Sonic, and he couldn't reach it either, so his hands just balled into fists. "What's your problem anyway? We were just playing catch! You know he can barely talk properly, now give the freaking thing back to him!"_

 _"_ _Ah-ah-ah, you aren't supposed to say it for him," Scarlet scolded, grabbing Mighty's hand before it could fly out and punch somebody. "But it looks like he can't just ask for it nicely on his own."_

 _"_ _Aw, that sucks," Synth said sarcastically. "He won't be able to keep this, then. Flip, get rid of it."_

 _The rabbit stepped back so that Sonic couldn't catch it, then threw the Frisbee, hard. It flew along the beach, collided with the ocean with a huge splash, and floated for a moment before sinking. "No hard feelings, weirdo. Just kidding," he told the hedgehog as he and his friends left._

 _Synth pulled Sonic out of the water barrel within a few seconds, laughing. "Aw, what's the matter?" he asked mockingly. "It's just a bit of water. You were only under for a couple of seconds. You aren't scared, are you?" Flip and Scarlet joined in on the laughter. Synth moved his victim closer to the water again. Sonic, still terrified, tried desperately to loosen himself from the older hedgehog's grip, without any luck. He struggled in panic as he was submerged again. For another five seconds, he was underwater. He felt the cold liquid compressing his body, trying its best to get into his eyes, nose, mouth and lungs, keeping him from taking even the slightest breath of sweet, refreshing air. Ten years old was too young to die. He felt like he was using every bit of his willpower not to lose consciousness… and then it stopped. He realised that Synth had pulled him out again, and he took in deep breaths of air. The bully smirked. "Scared? That was just five seconds. Surely you can last more than that," he said._

 _Unable to hold back his tears, Sonic braced himself for the next trip down._

 _Sonic looked at the wreckage of a building. Its door was half-destroyed, the windows were broken, and the walls were cracked and burnt. Luckily, there hadn't been anybody inside it when Robotnik had destroyed it. The sound of footsteps alerted Sonic, and he turned around. Synth was running towards him._ Great, _he thought._ I save everything he's ever known, and he's still going to pick on me. _He braced himself for the torment. But when Synth arrived, he didn't try to do anything to his former victim. Instead, he stood there for a while, then spoke. "Er… Sonic. Hey," he began awkwardly. Sonic gave a sigh that clearly said,_ What do you want? _"So, a couple times in the past years, I've been a tiny bit of a jerk to you," Synth said. "But now you saved the world. And maybe I realise that you aren't a complete failure on nature's part. And maybe I realise that some of the stuff I did was uncalled for." He paused. "…Sorry. Hey, that's all in the past. We can be all good now, right? Maybe… friends, kind of?"_

 _For a moment, Sonic considered the green hedgehog's words. He didn't know how to react to the offer. Making friends with him… But then he remembered the endless years of torment and bullying from Synth, Flip and Scarlet. The constant fear, everything he had been given just for being different, and all of it at the hands of this one guy and his friends._

 _And without giving an answer, he turned and walked away._

"S… Sonic?" Tails asked. "Are you okay? You're kinda just standing there…"

The blue hedgehog was snapped back into reality, realising that he had been having a sort of flashback. He nodded. _I'm fine._ He motioned for Tails to follow him. The fox took his hand and allowed himself to be led through the village.

They came to the table where Sonic had left the food. After twenty minutes, it was getting cold, but it didn't matter. They sat down and ate. Tails quietly slid closer to his friend. Sonic smiled at him, and that was all he needed. He told himself to forget about the pain, and remember that he was better off here than he was back where he came from. And he knew somewhere that even if things weren't as good as he had thought they would be, he was still somewhere with somebody who respected who he was, and that even if the bad things returned, he could let them go.

 **Wow… I have no words. Jerkness and flashbacks. That's all I can say for sure. Random Green Hedgehog and his friends finally got names, I guess. Man, they're a bunch of… *resists urge to use a string of impossibly rude swear words* …jerks. Funny story: I was going to have Sonic save Tails. But I thought about it, and I thought, 'no, Tails needs to stick up for himself'. So we got this instead. I hope you liked it. Speaking of Sonic, I was writing the flashbacks (which took up almost three pages. Length spike), and I thought, 'this could be a story'. A story about Sonic's life before that first adventure. Would that be a good story? If I wrote it, would you read it? Really, I'd like to know. I might do it.**

 **And yes, Mighty made a cameo. More on him later. *teaser-ness intensifies***

 **Well, anyways, that'll be it for this chapter. Thank you for reading, please review, and I hope you enjoyed.**


	7. Chapter 7: Thunder, Rain and Lightning

**Dear Maxi-T: I actually kind of based Synth and Scarlet off Scourge and Fiona respectively, haha. Good eye. But like you said, it wouldn't fit with the canon. Gotta love those OCs, lol. I really enjoyed having Tails stand up for himself. It's something I need to get him doing more often. As you mentioned, he can't always rely on Sonic to bail him out. coughsonicadventure1and2cough Well, anyways, thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the next chapter. :D**

 **Dear Oceanera12: True… maybe it's because it's awesome to see how he always defies the odds and becomes such a strong character. Sonic's speech problem… that's kind of a headcanon I have. There'll be more on that later, and I'll probably cover it a lot in some other stories. And you gotta love those clean stories. I don't write sweary or inappropriate fanfics, because it doesn't work with the series (and it can get uncomfortable pretty quickly. Let's not talk about the ship fics). Glad you enjoyed! Hope you like this chapter. :D**

 **Dear Nova the hedgehog: (sweeps exploded parts of you back together so you can read my reply) (lol, gotta love explosions) It's okay if you're late, I'm pretty bad for lateness myself XD Is it really that awesome? You're too nice to me, haha. Glad you like it! Best wishes right back. Enjoy this chapter! :D**

 **SLOW UPDATE AGAIN I'M SORRY. Slow internet, working on other things, writer's block. If there's a chance it can slow me down, it happened. But this story isn't dead, and I'm going to finish it. Sorry!**

 **Everybody really seems to like that story idea I mentioned last time. I'm working on it right now, and I'll probably start publishing it pretty soon. I'll let you all know when it's being done. Thanks for the feedback.**

 **Now, this chapter is one that I've been planning ever since I began this. I won't spoil too much, but like chapter 5 did with Sonic's hydrophobia, it introduces a key aspect of Tails' personality. It's going to be cute, and it's going to advance the plot a little more. Lots of feels and lots of adorableness is coming. PREPARE FOR FEELS AND ADORABLENESS.**

 **P.S.: If you don't get the blatantly obvious reference in the chapter name, I am deeply ashamed of you and you aren't a true Sonic fan.**

Chapter 7 - Thunder, Rain and Lightning

A loud noise jolted Sonic awake. He sat up, half-alert. Rain pounded relentlessly on the windows. He looked out of the window, and the sky was nothing but thick, black clouds. A thunderstorm. The sky briefly lit up, as a flash of lightning pierced the darkness. It was followed by the crashing noise of yet more thunder. Sonic rubbed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Before he lay down, lightning illuminated the sky again with a loud, flashing noise. Another sound came with the lightning. It sounded like somebody screaming.

Knowing the likely source of the noise, Sonic stood up again. He pulled on his shoes and walked into the living room, still partially asleep. Looking over to the couch, he realised that Tails wasn't there. His first instinct was to panic, but as another rumble of thunder accompanied a flash of lightning, the scream came again. He looked down to where the sound was coming from. Under the low table in front of the sofa, Tails was curled up tightly, shaking in fear. Sonic bent down so that he could see under the table properly. He waved his hand in front of Tails' face, and the fox responded by looking up. His face was streaked with tears, and he looked terrified. Without saying anything, he crawled out from his hiding place and hugged Sonic tightly. The hedgehog put a hand on his friend's shoulder. Tails was about to say something, but another flash of lightning interrupted him. He screamed and ran back under the table, resuming his original 'ball of panic' position.

Sonic got down again and held out his hand. Tails took it reluctantly, and slowly he let himself be pulled into a standing position again. He latched onto Sonic again like the hedgehog was the only person left in the world. "H-how long is his storm going to last?" he asked nervously, barely audible with the constant sound of the rain pelting down in the background. All Sonic could do was shrug. He slowly led the fox to the sofa. Tails sat down and buried his head in Sonic's chest. The thunder let them both know it was still there, and he yelped in shock. He moved closer to Sonic, sobbing softly. The hedgehog put a comforting arm around him. He finally managed to look up. "S-sorry, it's just that…" Lightning streaked through the clouds again, and he cried out again. "Aaaah!"

Despite his efforts to calm himself, Tails started crying again. Sonic hugged him comfortingly. For a while, he held onto the hedgehog and released his fear. Eventually, he found a way to speak through his crying. "…I'm afraid of storms," he admitted, wiping a tear from his eye. "Especially lightning…"

Right on cue, the sky lit up again with a crash, and Tails screamed again. He was shaking in fear. Sonic understood how he felt. He kept his arms around the fox, stroking his back in an effort to calm him down. Still shivering, but less so, Tails looked his friend in the eye, and managed to get out a "Thank you." The rain continued to fall, but no more thunder or lightning came. With the worst of the storm over, his fear subsided, and fatigue took its place. Closing his eyes, he rested his head on Sonic and went quiet.

The hedgehog looked down at his friend, sound asleep. He briefly considered trying to push Tails off him and go back to bed, but didn't have the heart to disturb him. With a smile, he sighed and pulled a blanket over them both, preparing for a night on the couch. He laid back, and before he knew it, his eyelids drooped and he was sleeping as well.

 **So, yeah. Short and sweet chapter. Hope you all liked it. I loved writing this! It was so adorable. *hugs Sonic and Tails***

 **Sorry for the slow update, but the normal schedule should resume soon.**

 **Please review! Until then, bye!**


	8. Chapter 8: Getting Things Done

I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

xX*Xx

 **Dear Oceanera12: Tails, why are you so adorable? Funny thing, I actually like storms myself as well (for some reason). Until the power cuts out and I can't keep my laptop charged or access the internet, that is. Good thing you're okay with lateness. It was a month between updates e_e Tails and lightning. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Anyways, thanks for the review, and enjoy! :D**

 **What? A chapter that didn't take a month to come out? What madness is this? XD**

 **Yes, I'm updating much sooner than expected, yay! I couldn't wait to get to writing this! Why? Three reasons. One: it's adorable. Two: it links into another major part of the story. Three: I got to introduce this headcanon of mine which always makes me laugh. I won't blather about garbage any more. I don't have anything else to say, so I'll stop my annoying ranty bold text of death. Just enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 8 - Getting Things Done

A few days after the storm, Tails woke up like he did every morning. He was about to wait for Sonic to wake, as usual, but he saw a note that had been taped to the wall. He pulled off the sticky tape and read it. In messy but legible handwriting, it said:

 _Hey, Tails. Great, you found my note. I'm in the village. I couldn't wait for you to wake up, because I have to do thing really fast. Sorry about that. I need to go somewhere for a while. There's something going on that I need to check out, and it's too dangerous for you to come. I'll stock up on food so that you don't have to go out if you don't want to, then I need to go pretty quickly. I won't be more than a few days, and you should be able to look after yourself for a while. Be back soon, then I'm off again. From your buddy, Sonic._

After rereading the note just to make sure he hadn't missed anything, Tails put it down. Knowing that Sonic wouldn't keep him waiting for long, he sat down again. And he waited for the hedgehog to return.

True to his word, Sonic came back in five minutes holding a bag of food. He waved to Tails as he entered, then ran into the kitchen, quickly stacking various items into the fridge and cupboards. Closing the fridge, he came back into the lounge room. He seemed unusually tense, like there was something going on, but he didn't want to make it obvious. Looking over to the space where he had stuck his note, then to where Tails had left it, he pointed at it. _Did you read that?_

"Yeah, I read it. Are you going soon?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded. He grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and started scribbling something else. Looking over his shoulder, Tails saw that it was a guide of sorts. Sonic finished, showing Tails. It was titled 'Guide For Not Blowing Up My House While I'm Gone. That Nearly Happened When I Was 7. It's A Long Story.' Tails couldn't help but laugh. It was a simple list of things to keep in mind. There's food in the fridge, don't go out too far and get lost, what to do if the TV goes fuzzy, and so on. Sonic watched to make sure that his friend had definitely read it all. Tails nodded. "Okay, I got it. Good luck with whatever you're doing." Sonic smiled and shot the fox a thumbs up. He pointed at the door. _I need to leave now._

Sonic ran outside and got in the Tornado, waving. _See you!_ Tails followed and watched the plane take off. "Bye!" He waved Sonic one last farewell, and didn't stop waving until the Tornado was just a red dot in the distance.

Going back inside, Tails felt slightly nervous. He had never been alone in Sonic's house before. It didn't feel right to be somewhere without the owner of the place there. He told himself to shake it off. If Sonic had been happy to leave him there unsupervised, surely there was a reason. After standing there for a minute, he decided to make some breakfast.

One chilidog later (about half of the food Sonic had bought was chilidogs), Tails looked over to the bookshelf. He pulled out a random book, taking note of where it had originally been. It was some kind of unusual book with the blurb on the front and the cover on the back. He opened it up, and the first page explained that it was a type of comic called a 'manga', and that it was made to be read from right to left to preserve the original format. Tails opened it from the back and began reading. He quickly got accustomed to reading backwards, and became lost in the story. It was about an aspiring pirate with the power to stretch his body who wanted to find some kind of ultimate treasure. It had a lot of action and fighting and violence, but after what he had seen in his life, it didn't scare him. Tails barely noticed anything around him, he was so wrapped up in the story.

Within three hours, broken up only by grabbing lunch, he had finished the manga, along with six of the eleven other entries Sonic had. He put the seventh volume back on the shelf and blinked. The time had gone by quickly. He wondered what else to do, when it hit him. He had been planning this for a while, but he needed to do it in secrecy, otherwise the surprise would be ruined. With Sonic away for a few days, now was the perfect time! What was Tails planning? After coming to South Island, he was the happiest he had ever been, and it was all thanks to Sonic. He had wanted to somehow repay the hedgehog for everything, and he had decided that he would make something, because he was good at creating things. He didn't want Sonic to know about it until it was finished, so he had put it off, but the perfect opportunity had just presented itself. So Tails began looking around for the necessary materials.

He found some paper without a problem, and the lead pencil that Sonic had used earlier was still on the table. He dug out a set of coloured pencils after opening nearly every drawer in the house, and got an eraser in the process. For a moment, he stalled, not sure where to start. He decided to begin with a title. In big, sprawling letters, he wrote at the top of one piece of paper, _why sonic is my frend by tails_. On the half of the page that hadn't been filled with his messy handwriting, he drew two stick figures. He added a million spikes to one, and two tails to the other. He put smiling faces on the figures, then coloured them in blue and orange. He drew a line of green underneath for the ground. Flipping the page over, he wrote the first line of his story: _once up on a time their was a awesom hero called sonic._

Tails wrote and drew some more. He had thought it through logically, and wrote on the back of each page so that the 'story' would flow without being broken up. He almost wrote backwards after reading from right to left for three hours, but corrected himself. His giant letters meant that only two or three sentences could fit onto each page, but that was all he needed. He drew the stick-figure versions of Sonic and himself over and over, taking care with every line. He worked hard on his project for ages, telling the true story of a kid who had been trapped in the worst life possible, but met somebody who cared about him and respected him. The true story of him and Sonic. The next time he looked up, it was dark out. The fatigue hit him, and he almost fell asleep at the kitchen table, but reminded himself to get dinner. As soon as he had finished eating, he lay down on the sofa, pulled the blanket over his body, and collapsed immediately.

The next morning, when Tails woke up, he briefly resumed his regular habit of waiting for Sonic. But then he remembered that Sonic wasn't home, and that he was working on two things - one, making a present for his best friend, and two, reading from right to left about a pirate with superpowers. He went to the kitchen and made some toast, then read the eighth volume of the manga, taking extreme care not to get crumbs in the book. Once he had finished the latest chapter, he put it back and went back to working on his book. He still had a lot of work to do, but the task didn't faze him.

As Tails was messily writing _this is the turnadoe which is a fast plane_ , the pencil broke. "Aww, don't break now!" he told it. Sighing, he looked for a sharpener, but he couldn't find one. He doubted that Sonic would own a full set of pencils but not a sharpener, but his search had no results. He had looked everywhere. Well… not everywhere. There was one room he hadn't checked, and that he hadn't even looked inside for the few weeks he had been living here. Sonic's bedroom. The door was always closed, and Tails never tried to open it. It had never been mentioned, but it was an unspoken rule: don't go in Sonic's room. He was uncertain about going in there, but tried to persuade himself into doing it. Sonic would never need to know, and it was for a good cause. Taking a deep breath, he turned the doorhandle, carefully opened the door, and walked in.

He didn't know what he had expected, but Sonic's room probably didn't fit it. It wasn't in any way strange or unusual, just the sort of room that most boys his age would have (well, aside from the manga lying on his bed with a cover that depicted a pretty girl in a sailor outfit, which Tails had the feeling he wasn't supposed to know about). His bed was shaped like a red racecar, which Tails couldn't help smiling at. He tried not to focus too much on the room, and just looked for what he needed. To his relief, there was a sharpener lying on Sonic's desk. He grabbed it and was about to leave, close the door, and forget that he had entered. Before he could, a picture caught his eye. His curiosity got the better of his common sense, and he picked it up.

The picture showed four hedgehogs, almost certainly a family. One was blue with a fringe of brown hair, and looked confident. Another blue one looked similar to the first, but instead of the hairstyle, he had a white moustache and bushy eyebrows. The third was purple. She had long hair, wore a dress, and had a smile more cheerful than any Tails had ever seen before. The fourth hedgehog was a baby, held by the purple one, who Tails assumed was his mother. He was bright blue, and smiled up at the camera with wide black eyes. The baby hedgehog looked identical to Sonic, only a decade younger. Then it clicked in Tails' mind - this was a photo of Sonic as a baby. And the other hedgehogs must have been his family. His mother, father, and… uncle? Cousin? Family friend? He couldn't tell. Sonic had never spoken about his family, and Tails had never asked. Clearly, the famous hedgehog lived alone, and Tails assumed he always had. Looking back, that logic was flawed. Sonic must have a family, everyone did. Tails had never known his, but he knew that everyone had parents, and most of the time, those parents raised them. How long ago had Sonic's family left? Were they gone forever?

Tails suddenly realised that the photo he was looking at was very significant. It may have been the only memory Sonic had of his family. He had never seen something so personal before, and it was somewhat unnerving to be looking at a part of his friend's history in this way. Not wanting to trespass on Sonic's personal life, Tails put the picture back exactly where he had found it, took the sharpener he had come for, and left, closing the door behind him.

After turning the broken pencil back into a sharp point, Tails kept working. He wrote page after page of the story, making sure to paint his friend in the best possible light. He illustrated everything, all in his stick-figure style. A red biplane. A beautiful island. A simple house. A village full of people. And him and Sonic, again and again, smiling, frowning, talking, laughing, running, exploring, happy, sad, scared, curious, angry, excited. A blue blob of spikes and a few orange circles with tails, carefully and precisely drawn every single time. He worked for the entire day, stopping only to go outside to eat lunch and read some more. Some would find it tedious, but Tails enjoyed every minute of it. He poured his heart and soul into that collection of paper, not lessening the effort he put into it for a second. Once the second day was over, he was exhausted. Like the first day, he ate, then fell asleep in an instant.

The next day, Tails worked harder than ever. It was a beautiful day, so he found a book to lean on and took his work outside. He looked to the clear skies and lively environment, and it struck him, as it had so many times, just how lucky he was to be here. To be surveying the untouched paradise of Green Hill Zone, rather than the charred wreckage of Poloy Forest. To know that he could walk into town like anyone else, instead of being punched in the face whenever anyone saw him. To have… a friend. A friend who cared about him, and one that was respected amongst others, and not needing to rely on robots for company. Thinking about T-Pup, he sighed sadly. He remembered how, a day or two after he had arrived, Sonic had taken the last piece of the robot dog and put it safely on a shelf, so that it wouldn't be broken. All that was left of his first ever friend, even if he was just a robot. Tails still missed T-Pup, and hoped that somehow, the little robot was in a better place now. He deserved that much at least. He had been faithful to the end, and his master would never forget him.

Forcing the sad thoughts to leave, Tails kept going with his project. He wrote. _sonic and tails had lunch togeter it was good._ He drew. The spike-blob Sonic and stick figure him ate scribbled chilidogs. _sonic and tails was happy._ The two characters smiling. _that night there was also a storm._ South Island, but the waves around it were dark and choppy, and the sky was grey with exaggerated lightning. _tails is scarred of storms so he hided._ Him standing under a table (somehow) and frowning. _sonic came and helped tails to not be scarred._ Sonic smiling and holding his hand out to Tails, who was still under the table. Tails worked all that day, and finally, it was complete. He looked at what he had done. There must have been at least fifty pieces of paper there, and he had worked hard on every one of them. Smiling to himself, he went inside to finally put it all together. He read over everything again to make sure he hadn't missed anything, and satisfied with the end result, he stacked it all in order. After double-checking that every page was in the right order and up the right way, he got his pencil and stabbed a few holes in the side. He looked around Sonic's house and found some string. He wound it through the holes, tied it up, and cut it off. It was done.

Tails smiled, utterly elated. He had worked so hard for three days straight, and it had all been worth it. He hoped that Sonic would like it. He looked for somewhere to hide his book, so that it would be a surprise. Finally, he settled on sliding it inside another book on the shelf. Tails was a smart kid, and knew that Sonic wouldn't find it unless he felt the need to come home and immediately read _1991 Fun Facts About Science._ Looking at the title again, the fox suddenly found himself resisting the urge to open the book and read it from cover to cover. Instead, he pulled out the series of manga he had been reading through, and finished the last three volumes in barely two hours.

With both the things he had been doing for the past few days complete, Tails didn't know what else to do. Luckily, he didn't have long to wait. Just as the sun had begun to set, there was a knock on the door. Knowing who it was, Tails ran to answer it. He threw the door open, and sure enough, Sonic was there. "You're back! How was it?" he asked excitedly. The hedgehog didn't answer. He walked inside and sat down, barely noticing his friend. Tails didn't have a lot of experience socially, but he recognised the type of expression on Sonic's face. Something was up. He sat next to Sonic, concerned. "What's wrong? Did something happen? I haven't done anything wrong, have I?" He hoped that it wasn't his fault. Had he forgotten something?

Sonic shook his head, then waved at Tails weakly. The fox didn't buy it. "Hey, something's going on, I can tell. What happened?" he asked firmly. Sonic looked at him. He wondered if it was a good idea to tell the kid. This was serious, more serious than anything they had gone through together yet, and he wasn't sure if Tails would be able to handle the news.

But he knew that he had to say it. The fox had been through a lot on his own, and it would be out soon anyway. So Sonic sighed, and explained. His actions couldn't covey what had happened, so he spoke. There were just two words, but they were some of the most impactful he had said in his lifetime.

"Robotnik's back."

 **Yes, that's correct! For anybody who's confused, Sonic CD just happened. So Robuttnik has canonically returned. You know how I said that this would be a big story thing? This is the big story thing! And yes, that was a photo of Sonic's family (who will be covered in my origin, which I'll start publishing soon-ish) (Sonic is a cute baby :3). And yes, Tails is reading One Piece. Sadly, my local library doesn't have every issue, so I've only read the first volume, but it's really cool. Apologies to One Piece fans if I got something wrong. And yes, that is Sailor Moon in Sonic's room. XD I'll explain myself. Headcanon:**

 **Sonic likes reading manga. He actually owns a pretty impressive collection that most people don't know about. His favourite is One Piece, but he also really likes Sailor Moon. But try getting him to admit that.**

 **…** **I'm imagining Sonic reading Sailor Moon and Tails walking in on him and Sonic just shoving it under his bed and trying to deadpan it XD**

 **Anyways, reviews, please! Tell me what you thought of this chapter (and my idiot headcanon… I was really bored one day, okay) and what you want to see in this story! I'm gonna leave this chapter off here. If you liked it, PUNCH that favourite button IN the face, LIKE A BOSS! (please get the jacksepticeye reference) Thanks for reading, and see you all next chapter!**


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